By Eva Ruth Moravec
Staff Writer

In April, area officials expect the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to declare that the San Antonio region has complied with air quality regulations, a nod to the foresight of local leaders who started thinking about ways to clean the area’s air years ago.

Another EPA announcement will likely follow in May, when the agency decides whether or not to tighten standards for the first time since 1997.

If the proposed standard is passed, San Antonio will likely not be able to comply and have to face regulations that will impact San Antonio’s industry, transportation and residents’ quality of life.  

The EPA standard, currently 84 parts per billion, sets the maximum amount of ground-level ozone cities may have; the proposed standard is between 70 and 75 parts per billion.

“San Antonio has pretty good air,” said David Newman, San Antonio’s environmental services manager, “and our Clean Air Plan, which we adopted in 2002, is keeping us in compliance with the federal standard. But, when that is lowered, it’s going to be really hard to meet. We’re going to have to have some cuts that are going to be very painful.”

Ground-level ozone is created through a reaction of nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compound emissions that are exposed to sunlight, and is caused by emissions from industrial facilities, electric utilities, motor vehicle exhaust, gasoline vapors and chemical solvents.

The impacts of not complying with the EPA standard, or “non-attainment,” are federally-mandated.  

For one, non-attainment makes it more difficult for new road construction, as transportation agencies are required to prove through a study that adding vehicle capacity will not create more ozone.

“It’s primarily an issue of modeling those transportation projects and making sure they don’t make the air quality worse,” Newman said. “It is possible to build new roads, and it’s done in other non-attainment areas. The threat is the withholding of highway funds, but that’s never happened in Texas.”

A second mandate would require San Antonians to fill vehicles only with reformulated gasoline, a gas that burns cleaner than regular unleaded gasoline. Usually, reformulated gasoline runs eight to 10 cents more expensive than regular unleaded.

“The gas itself is blended with a higher percentage of an oxygenate,” Newman said, “and as a result, it costs a little bit more. The distribution of it is the challenge, not the blending.”

He said that San Antonio’s major gasoline suppliers already make reformulated gasoline at their plants for other cities, like Houston and Dallas, both of which have been in non-attainment since the standard was first adopted.

“We expect to be in attainment in 2008,” said Bill Day, Valero Energy spokesman. “If that changes, we’ll discuss how we plan to supply the market, but at this point it would just be speculation, and we’d rather not speculate.”

Finally, non-attainment would mean more stringent controls, more stringent permitting and possibly a cap in trade systems on industrial sources, said Newman.

“It’s going to make it that much harder for our people to get permits,” said Michael Harris, president of the San Antonio Manufacturer’s Association. “We submitted a letter to the EPA and to the Texas Coalition on Environmental Quality with our objections. Most organizations, from what I understand, have expressed great concern over the proposals.”

Despite objections, the EPA does plan to lower the standard nationwide, causing more cities to plunge into non-attainment, Harris and many others predict.

“Advances in science are leading to cleaner skies and healthier lives,” said EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson. “America’s science is progressing and our air quality is improving. By strengthening the ozone standard, EPA is keeping our clean air momentum moving into the future.”

Even if the EPA tightens its standard in the spring, it will still be some time before San Antonio is found to be in or out of compliance. Regions’ ozone levels are measured over a three-year period and then averaged, Newman said, and he expects new designations in 2010.